Gaming System 1500 EURO budget

Hi all,

I am considering buying a new PC and would like to hear your thoughts/advice on the build I've got in mind. I will not be building this system myself, so I'm afraid all parts will have to come from the same shop. The website is in Dutch but in case anyone wants to take a look: www.salland.eu.

Purchase Date: I'm planning to order this early next week.
Budget: I'd like to spend 1500 euro max. At today's exchange rate that would mean about 2100 dollars, but I don't know how prices over here compare to US ones so I'm not sure how much use the budget is.
System Usage: Gaming (mainly RTS, RPG and Football Manager) and the usual basic stuff (internet, music).
Not required: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers
Overclocking: No
Sli/Crossfire/X2: preferably not since I'm worried about power and heat issues.
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 206BW (1680x1050)
Comments: I'd like to be able to keep gaming with this PC for 4 years or so, upgrading the GPU and monitor in 2 years.

I realize my request for advice is made more complicated by the fact that I'm gonna order all these parts at a website in a language the vast majority of you won't be able to understand. Here are the items I have in mind currently:

- Antec Gamersgear Twelve Hundred Black
- Corsair HX850 850 Watt, 20+24 Pins, 80 Plus Rating
- Intel Core I7 920 2.66 GHz, 4.8 GT/s, 4x 256kb, 8 MB, Tray
- Scythe Mugen 2
- GigaByte GA-EX58-UD3R
- Corsair TR3X6G1600C7 6 GB, PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, 7, Non-ECC, Kit Of 3
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750 GB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Toxic GameStar 1024 MB
- Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE S-ATA, Black (2x)

Alternatives:
- Antec Gamersgear Nine Hundred 2 (would save me 50 euros but I prefer design of the black edition of the twelve hundred)
- MSI X58 PRO-E (12 euros cheaper but I like the fact the gigabyte stays cooler)
- I'm not totally sure on the memory. I find it very hard to distinguish between the many slightly different models. I had this set in mind because it's a well known brand, has low latency for fairly high speed, and it's compatible with the motherboard.
- I've thought long and read a lot of reviews about GPU's. The OC and excellent, quiet cooling on the Sapphire combined with a nice price is why I'm thinking of choosing this card. I would be willing to spend more money on the GPU if this provides a nice performance increase without getting too hot, loud or power hungry. Alternatives would be the Radeon 4870X2, 2 4870s or 4890s in CrossFire or the XFX GeForce 285 Black Edition. I'm a bit hesitant towards SLi/ CrossFire/X2 because of the increased power requirements and heat, which doesn't seem worth spending extra money for extra performance which seems largely dependant on individual games or is not needed for my gaming needs in the first place. The 285 is 100 euros more expensive than the 4890, which to me does not seem worth the performance gains. Black Edition however does look extremely cool

One final question I have is regarding SSDs. I was thinking of getting one to install Windows and a game or two on. This would be either the Vertex OCZ 30GB (at 110 euros), 60GB (200 euros) or the Intel X-25M (190 euros but out of stock) 80GB. The decreased loading times for the OS and games would be nice but if it's just the initial loading that benefits from this I think i'll skip. I've not really been able to find any conclusive information on this and the amount of threads on various boards of people having problems with these drives have scared me off a bit.

Thanks in advance for your advice on my build and on SSD, let me know if theres any other info you want.

You could definitely drop down to a 650W Corsair/Antec if you're not crossfiring or a 750W if you are. Also get one of these Mobos instead (6 RAM slots being one reason).

ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] reme%20LGA

EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 20SLI%20LE

ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131386

Finally, this HDD will be faster: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] f3%20500gb

Thank you for your replies jbakerlent and tecmo34

The PSU was a part of my build I kind of overlooked after deciding I would not go for Xfire/SLi, at least not initially. So 750W is enough even if I did opt for Xfire/SLi in the future? Not sure on modular, I do quite like the idea of the cleaner look inside the case even if it's not really needed, but switching to a regular 750W PSU would save me some money which is nice. And the 8-pin extention would be needed with a regular 750W PSU too? I know absolutely nothing about this to be honest so don't have a clue what extention to order.

I'm going to change my mobo to the ASUS P6T SE. It's slightly cheaper and the extra RAM slots are nice, so thank you both for recommending it.

The HDD I'm not sure on. Not found any reviews on the Samsung F3, so I'm a bit hesitant to go with that one. Then again I do like Samsung products. Wouldn't it be better however to go for a 32MB Cache drive? Would be a 1TB which I don't need, but that's not really a problem since the price is still fine.

And I'm still tempted to get a SSD. I'm afraid I'll run into problems with a 32GB version tho, so I'd be looking at a 64GB Vertex or 80GB Intel XM-25. It's a lot of money tho, possibly spent better elsewhere.

I'm not sure if you know about this site http://www4.hardwareversand.de/_/home.jsp It's quite popular over in Ireland even though it's a German (I think) website, mainly because it's so cheap. Their service is good from what I heard, only problem I know of is that their staff have trouble communicating in english, but it won't be a problem for you I presume.